Pandemic's Effect On Child Development
During this
unprecedented period of Pandemic & series of Lockdowns
we are much
stressed both inside and outside of our
family ; While we
sometimes have to go outside for bare necessities, our
children remain
totally confined within the house, devoid of any normal social contacts
for a
long time ; How they are affected mentally & also
physically ?
Within a few paragraphs we can try to highlight some
points briefly as
under –
Physical &
Mental
The various
means to mitigate the threat
of spread of the Covid-19
pandemic
such as social restrictions, shutdowns, school closure etc.
contribute
to the stress in parents & children
and can become risk
factors
which can adversely affect a child’s
physical & mental growth ;
As per studies
conducted by the PubMed, WHO
Covid -19 & SciELO,
epidemics
can lead to high levels of stress in
parents & children,
which begin
with concerns about children becoming
infected ;
These
studies also describes several potential mental and emotional
consequences
of pandemics like severe anxiety or depression among
parents and
acute stress disorder, post-traumatic
stress, anxiety
disorders & depression among children ; These data
can be related
to adverse
childhood experiences & elevated risk of toxic stress
[Source : Jornal
De Pediatria, March & April, 2020] ;
Social Effect
In a
pandemic situation children do not get the cognitive and social
stimulation that they would get
normally outside their home ; By
being
confined into home for most of the time
of the day and
maintaining social distancing outside they are deprived of the social
grooming which
is very much important in the early stage of a child’s
growth
; Besides, delay in development of speech and language and
also
finding trouble in sharing & being in groups are also commonly
found ; Again,
among the lower middle &
working class people of our
country, by
virtue of financial stress, children
face higher rates of
housing
& food insecurity ; They also are subject to rising rates of
neglect &
abuse ; All of these adversely affect
a
child’s growth into
adulthood
;
Towards Some
Partial Solutions
In families
with more favorable socio-economic
conditions, children
&
caregivers need to adapt to a
distance-learning model ; This can
generate increased
demands for parents to provide guidance to their
children about
the excessive use of electronic
devices ; However,
where the socioeconomic
conditions do not permit sufficient use
of
internet to spread
school education, other less
costly social media
like ‘What’s
App’ etc. are seen to be used
; But above all, to minimize
the
adverse effect of total school
closure & lack of outside
games &
sports it is the duty of the care-givers to engage their children
in all
possible types of indoor physical games & other activities like
plantation, taking care of the old family members etc. as much as
possible ; All
these are likely to reduce the stress in in
both the parents
and
the children ;
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